Lambda Pi Eta

Slippery Rock Universitys Communication Honorary

President: Hannah McLaughlin Vice President: Amber Beason Secretary:
Catie Clark
Treasurer: Julie Jurich

Student Advisory Board Committee Members:

Sarah King, Chair
Heather McClure, Hanna Brande, Michele Sneddon, Megan Guerreri, Musiette
Clay, Emily Cuttrell, Riley Rocci, Daniel Tucci

Student Advisory Board Report 2014

After a year-long examination of the many components of the
Communication Department and discussing them as a whole, Lambda Pi Eta
has compiled the following assessment, with suggestions we feel will
improve the department. We offer them in good faith for the benefit of
future students.
Course Offerings: Information and Access

Create a comprehensive suggested course track for all Communication

majors
Ability to test out of software classes
Knowledge about graphic design minor for communication student
o Now, it is more art-based
o Need it to be tailored to comm. students
Marketing classes should not be required
o Provide a marketing workshop/class that actually applies to
communication for all comm. majors

Course Offerings: Course Content & Delivery

3-Year Bachelors Degree

o Liberals in the summer and communication classes during the

school year
o Option to transfer back into four year programs, if needed
o Need to offer courses more frequently
Professors need to be up-to-date on all software and approaches
Mini computer lab needs printing and better chairs
o Need more color printers
Printing should be free for a communication class
Provide computer labs and computer support

Course Offerings: Junior/Senior Seminar

Combined Junior/Senior Seminar

o Junior Sem. is seen as less helpful because there is a lot of
repetition
o There should be consistent expectations
o Focus on preparation to think about graduate school
o Professors should streamline their approach for resume and
cover letter building in both Junior and Senior Seminar with the
curriculum and requirements

PR Program

Order of classes needs to be evaluated (prerequisites)

o Example: PR Writing needs to be taught before Case Studies
Professors should make students aware of when classes are being
offered
o Example: Campaigns was only offered in the Spring at one point
Professors should not have overlap in certain classes
o Example: Comm. Age and Mass Media
Remain client based
Add an elective communication course Event Planning class (from
Parks and Rec. majors), collaborative program

Integrated Marketing Communication Program

Provide a half communication and half business degree or half comm.

and half parks and rec. degree to be more specific

Journalism

Continue to enhance learning of writing different styles

Sometimes there are a lot of constraints and classes are too similar
Add another design class
Be more open-minded with students interests
Provide a writing seminar to get to put personal interests to use
Provide converged journalism capstone and more hard news story

Be encouraging to students or require them to work for the Rocket, WSRURadio and WSRU-TV

o Build on class effort

o Each group needs better contact with students
Should continue to increase student involvement
Provide a broadcast class
o Utilizing the TV studio with hands-on training
Offer a second level New Media Journalism class
o Make it more writing based

BA Program

Junior Seminar should be required for all communication majors (BA

included)
Provide more curriculum structure to the BA program, perhaps by
requiring students to
Maintain flexibility of diverse classes
Make it a requirement to do an internship
Offer more classes
Should not be a requirement for a language

PRSSA/Rock PRoductions

Continue to provide real-life clients, teamwork and leadership

opportunities and counting towards job experience
The qualifications for projects are sometimes not met among
underclassmen
Should not be mandatory

The Rocket

Continue to be open to take students stories, support other

organizations, be nationally recognized, integrated with classes such
as photo journalism, sports journalism and new media journalism
Keep it in Eisenberg
Should be strongly encouraged
Provide awareness of sources about their stories potentially being
published in the Rocket, if from a class

WSRU-TV

Need a TV channel
Become more involved with events on campus
Be more organized
Provide a closer location
Do more recruitment among students
Learn from competitors in order to improve broadcasts
Provide a converged newsroom
Offer class involvement
Provide more effort and be more open-minded

WSRU-Radio

Be open to all majors

Provide affiliation with the communication department
o Create a closer connection
Continue to enhance skills and diversity in programming and
broadcasting

Lambda Pi Eta

Continue to contribute to the communication department with the

Saturday showcase
Increase publicity and attendance
Allow students to participate, but not officially
Do better PR work
Make international students honorary members
Revise bulletin board
Accept referrals from other professors of overachievers in
communication classes
Send letters to future students to welcome them to the communication
department

Overall Grad school preparation

Communication department should offer more information to students

if interested
Provide resources for different grad. school tracks to go into such as
pamphlets, brochures, flyers, etc.

Professional Preparation

Continue to provide many opportunities to build portfolio

o PR has PRSSA/Rock Productions
o Journalism has WSRU-TV, WSRU-Radio and the Rocket

Internship Program

Continue to enable the students to go anywhere to figure out what

they like and build experience
Continue discussion board usage because it helps students reflect on
what they have done
Provide on-site visits from the internship advisor
Journal was helpful in organizing thoughts
Good internship orientation
Make sure students branch out from on-campus internships